It’s too late for me to double-check this, but In Contention‘s Kris Tapley is reporting that the Academy has suddenly and rather surprisingly waited until today — Wednesday, 1.18 — to announce a significant decision that was made about 20 days ago, which is that the screenplay for Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana has been classified by the Academy as an original screen- play, and NOT — as many have understood all along — an adapted screenplay based on Robert Baer’s “See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism.” The AMPAS decision, says Tapley, “was not revealed in any way [over] the last 30 days [and] Gaghan himself was not even made privy to the [new] classification until today.” (Variety‘s Timothy Gray reported the decision was made around 12.29.05) With the Academy voting deadline only two days off, the chances of Gaghan’s Syriana script being Oscar-nominated will be diminished if this news doesn’t reach enough of the the Academy voting body in time. As Tapley points out, “Any nomination the film receives in the adapted category from Academy members will not be considered,” even if every member of the 6,000- member organization supports it in this category — each vote will nonetheless be discounted. So tell your friends and neighbors.